Chris Evans is “not a big comic book reader”

April 4, 2010 - By Liam Goodwin

Fans of the Captain America comic books may want to avoid reading this, as it may cause offense. The actor who was recently cast as Steve Rogers, Chris Evans, isn’t that into comic books (gasp!). This shocking revelation was revealed this weekend at WonderCon in San Francisco while Evans was promoting The Losers (another comic book movie).

He said that he doesn’t really have a history and a love for comics and he didn’t grow up reading them. They are “fantastic for films”, however.

“The beautiful thing about comic books, even movies based on novels, you have a blueprint,” Evans added. “You have a tangible thing to say, ‘Listen, this is the story we’re going to work.’ Especially in comic books. You have a color palate. You have visual home base to kind of root yourself in. So, as an actor, it’s nice knowing the people behind the visual elements of the film have this kind of blue print to work off of.”

“I think Marvel is doing a lot of good things right now,” he said. “And it’s a fun character. Even if it wasn’t a comic book. I think the story of Steve Rogers is great. He’s a great guy. Even if it was just a script about anybody, I would probably want to do it. So it wasn’t necessarily about the comic itself. It was about … ”

At this point, Evans’ Losers co-star Zoe Saldana chimed in: “It was about the tights.”

Evans laughed. “Any time I can get in blue tights … . He’s a great character. He’s a great character to play. He just happens to be a comic book character.”

I’ve only read one comic book in my life so I’m not going to comment on his lack of love for them, although you would have thought a guy who has starred in so many comic book movies would have had some interest in them. Bryan Singer told his X-Men cast back in 2000 not to bother too much with the comics and just focus on the movie at hand, and I’m pretty sure Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t all that clued up on Iron Man before taking the role, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Evans, like most actors, probably took the role for the money and because it’s a good career move, but he may get into the comics as he gets more involved with the character during filming. All that really matters is that the people behind the camera know who Captain America is. Director Joe Johnston seems to know the character pretty well, so fans shouldn’t be too worried with Evans’ lack of knowledge.

This may not be a bad thing- he will have to read them now and since it will be in a short span, he will be able to dig deep and grasp the character more easily. He will be reading them with no opinion in mind.

vcurtz

Well, he's an actor. He doesn't need to be a big fan of his material; he just needs to portray the character well. As long as he can do that, he can think comic books are the anti-christ for all I care.